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<h1 id="page-title"><a href="#"> Automated Local News for Bristol</a></h1>
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<h2><a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article6349917.ece">Revived Hunter fills its boots - Times Online</a></h2>
<p class="posted"><span class="posttime">Sat, 23 May 2009 20:07:53 GMT/ <b>Times Online,  UK</b></span><span class="comments"><a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article6349917.ece">Go to article</a></span></p>
<div class="entry">
<p>That may seem a tall order for a company making wellington boots, but so far the  business  seems to have risen to the challenge. The brand has proved a hit at summer music festivals         epitomised by supermodel Kate Moss wearing her Hunters at Glastonbury </p>
<blockquote><p> SOON after Hunter had been rescued from administration, one of the boot company rsquos investors popped into his country outfitter in Cirencester. The woman behind the counter said she had stopped stocking Hunter boots because it was so hard to get regular deliveries, and dealing with the company was just too much hassle. The investors persuaded the shop owner to give Hunter another chance. She did  mdash and so did many others. Since the company was brought out of administration in 2006, its boots have become hot fashion items and sales are booming. Before the company rsquos failure, Hunter had budgeted for sales of  10m but, according to Peter Mullen, one of the present owners, it was likely to miss that target by at least 25%. The figures at the revived operation are far healthier today, with sales of  16m producing pre-tax profits of  2.6m. The owners  mdash a consortium that includes Mullen, who with his brother founded Thomas Pink shirts, former Tory treasurer Lord Marland, Julian Taylor and the Pentland sportswear group  mdash have this month hired a new chief executive, Peter Taylor, who will lead Hunter through the next phase of its development. The firm may owe a small debt of gratitude to Britain rsquos bad weather  mdash two washout summers have helped sales. Taylor, though, is only too aware that relying on the weather in this country would be foolhardy.  ldquoWe are addressing that area, rdquo he said.  ldquoWe need to have a product range that rsquos satisfied not just by rain, but other climate opportunities, too. rdquo That may seem a tall order for a company making wellington boots, but so far the business seems to have risen to the challenge. The brand has proved a hit at summer music festivals  mdash epitomised by supermodel Kate Moss wearing her Hunters at Glastonbury. Taylor, who previously headed Liberty Japan, said the company was preparing to launch a  ldquowelly pouch rdquo  mdash a fabric wallet that attaches to the boot to hold keys, mobile phones and other essential knick-knacks.  ldquoPeople at festivals don rsquot want to carry a lot of stuff, rdquo he said. Another sign of the company rsquos new confidence is the way it is has forged collaborations with other fashion brands. A tie-up with Jack Wills proved a hit. Peter Williams, chief executive of the preppy British fashion label, was keen on the deal, describing Hunter as  ldquoiconic rdquo. That pairing helped to pave the way for the footwear group to create a  235 Jimmy Choo-Hunter boot with a black crocodile-skin print. There is a long waiting list for these boots.  ldquoIf you can get a brand like Jimmy Choo to collaborate with you, you have to be doing something right, rdquo said Jessica Price Brown, managing editor of Drapers Record, the fashion-industry magazine. Taylor is wary, however, of straying too far from Hunter rsquos roots. Founded 150 years ago by an American living in Scotland, the brand is best known for its green wellies favoured by country folk, not least the royal family; the company sold 41,000 pairs of them last year. It wants to ensure it does not open itself up to a form of rural snobbery in which country dwellers come to see Hunter as a brand for soft people living in the cities.  ldquoJimmy Choo has raised our profile, rdquo said Taylor,  ldquobut we are not going to forget where our heritage comes from and where that core customer is. rdquo Increasingly, that core is to be found overseas. America accounts for a quarter of all sales  mdash the brand rsquos popularity is said to have been fuelled by the success there of the film The Queen. Asia is also a key market. To the disappointment of traditionalists, the company has moved its manufacturing overseas, which was deemed essential to its prosperity after it came out of administration. It had been in a huge factory in Scotland, with energy bills to match.  ldquoIt was pulling the company down, rdquo said Mullen. Hunter tried to find premises that would allow it to remain north of the border. Mullen came close to securing a new facility at Lockerbie, but ultimately the economics dictated that moving offshore was the only realistic option. Most production now takes place in China and Serbia. Mullen acknowledges that it was not a popular move. He said:  ldquoThe choice was having a successful company that manufactured overseas or one that manufactured here until it eventually closed. rdquo</blockquote></p></div>
<p class="tags"><b>Location: </b>3.0<b> Local Rank: </b>0.1<b> Topic: </b>0 <a href="#">test</a>, <a href="#">lorem</a>, <a href="#">ipsum</a></p>
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<div class="post">
<h2><a href="http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/4390555.Anorexic_woman_paid_for_beauty_treatments_with_dodgy_cheques/">Stow's Jessica Thomas walks free after admitting fraud - Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard</a></h2>
<p class="posted"><span class="posttime">Sun, 24 May 2009 08:05:19 GMT/ <b>Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard,  UK</b></span><span class="comments"><a href="http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/4390555.Anorexic_woman_paid_for_beauty_treatments_with_dodgy_cheques/">Go to article</a></span></p>
<div class="entry">
<p>Another     380 cheque was handed over on April 11 to the same company and a     600 cheque to a self-employed worker at the  business . All three bounced and when Thomas did not respond to letters from the company, the police arrested her on May 6. </p>
<blockquote><p> 9:00am Sunday 24th May 2009 AN ANOREXIC woman who paid for over   1,500 worth of beauty treatments to improve her self-esteem came into trouble when her cheques bounced. Jessica Thomas, 29, of Park Street in Stow-on-the-Wold, admitted three charges of fraud at Cheltenham Magistrates on Friday when she paid for treatments such as botox and hair extensions, despite having no money in her account. On April 8 this year Thomas handed over a cheque for   600 to Bare-Faced Aesthetics in Cheltenham after having treatments. Another   380 cheque was handed over on April 11 to the same company and a   600 cheque to a self-employed worker at the business. All three bounced and when Thomas did not respond to letters from the company, the police arrested her on May 6. Prosecutor Sharon Jomaa said her account was suspended in December last year and all overdraft facilities withdrawn. She said: "She told police she lost her job nine months ago and she, 'stuck her head in the sand,' and stopped opening her mail." Thomas admitted she was bipolar, a psychiatric condition that causes mood disorders, and shopped compulsively to elevate her frame of mind. Defending, Steven Woodward, said Thomas was anorexic and had been in a life-threatening condition. He said she had previously received cognitive behavioural therapy. "The money will be paid back, she has limited means herself but her family will help pay it back," he said. The magistrates heard Thomas lived with her grandmother and had been supported by her parents with a weekly allowance of   50. Chairman of the magistrates, Mary Sanders, ordered Thomas to repay   1,580 and   70 costs. She was sentenced to a conditional discharge for 12 months.</blockquote></p></div>
<p class="tags"><b>Location: </b>3.0<b> Local Rank: </b>0.1<b> Topic: </b>2 <a href="#">test</a>, <a href="#">lorem</a>, <a href="#">ipsum</a></p>
</div>
<div class="post">
<h2><a href="http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=19112">Saving the banks was right, says economics expert: Aled Blake - MyNews.in</a></h2>
<p class="posted"><span class="posttime">Sat, 23 May 2009 18:23:59 GMT/ <b>MyNews.in,  India</b></span><span class="comments"><a href="http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=19112">Go to article</a></span></p>
<div class="entry">
<p>Prof Henderson was speaking on a visit to Cardiff, where he addressed the Julian Hodge Bank annual lecture at Cardiff  Business  School. Speaking to the Western Mail, Prof Henderson warned people will have to cut their cloth accordingly, as higher taxes </p>
<blockquote><p> Prof Henderson was speaking on a visit to Cardiff, where he addressed the Julian Hodge Bank annual lecture at Cardiff Business School. Speaking to the Western Mail, Prof Henderson warned people will have to cut their cloth accordingly, as higher taxes kick in to pay for the policies he said have staved off a deeper crisis.    People in the UK have dug themselves out of bigger holes than this in previous years, and this is a pretty big hole,    he said.    It   s not as if you can just get up one day and fight hard and it   s over, it is going to be one long, hard fight and I just hope that it doesn   t beat people down and make them have a very pessimistic outlook.    Prof Henderson said it was difficult to see how the credit crisis and the recession that has followed it will affect the future shape of the global economy. He said:    The question if we are going to see a different kind of capitalism emerge in the coming decades is a question we would all like answering, I don   t know the answer.    I do think change will be incremental, we will not see any big, dramatic change and by the time it   s all over there will be some fairly major adjustments.    Prof Henderson described society as being    stunned    by the events in the financial markets. He pointed to the housing bubble in the US, the UK and elsewhere, that triggered the crisis, with different mortgages packaged together and sold off to investors as AAA star-rated derivatives and then repackaged and repackaged again, moving the process far away from its traditional model of one institution being responsible for a single process. Prof Henderson said:    There have been at least three major housing bubbles in the past 40 years in Britain.    The exact mechanism that has led to the excesses has differed but they have all been related, in some way, to deregulation which meant putting more faith in the market.    He said events that have unfolded have proved that intervention in the market is necessary to curtail its excess.    There are huge debts being taken on by both the UK and US governments and we don   t know yet what these assets are going to be worth in the future.    I think the governments have taken the right routes. Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, spent a good part of his career studying the Great Depression     letting a lot of banks fail was something that people think meant the Great Depression was deeper than it had to be.    Not letting the financial system become completely dysfunctional is extremely important in this kind of situation.    We, as taxpayers, are going to incur losses but I think things would be much worse if this action was not being taken.    People   s faith in the market has been shaken by events of the last two years, Prof Henderson said.    Britain has probably never had as much faith in the market as we have had in the US. But the market has brought us lots of wealth and a lot of change for the better, our living standards have risen for example.    And one of the consequences of the crisis is the growing importance of nations such as China and India     which Prof Henderson argued is long overdue given the size of their economies and the fact they now own so much Western debt. Prof Henderson said it was more important to be concerned with the mechanics of dealing with the situation rather than coming up with projections and predictions on the end of the credit crisis and the move towards economic growth. There is also a need for people to take less satisfaction in life from material goods, with the spending spree of the past decade now over. He added:    People have to take more satisfaction out of their personal relationships and less satisfaction out of the material things, they should not be weighed down by adversity but shift their attention towards other sources of happiness and well-being.   </blockquote></p></div>
<p class="tags"><b>Location: </b>3.0<b> Local Rank: </b>-9.0<b> Topic: </b>2 <a href="#">test</a>, <a href="#">lorem</a>, <a href="#">ipsum</a></p>
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